Setting the arena for a Magic Show
– One thing you find as a Magician is that you perform in so many different environments, from Living Rooms, to function rooms or halls, to parks or gardens, or restaurants or hotels, on stages or in small rooms, in school halls or around tables. The situations can be very different but in every situation it is very important to set the arena and make it as perfect for your show as possible.
Living rooms are great for a magic performance but it’s still possible by arranging the furniture and chairs to improve it for everyone. Try to locate with a nice backdrop or curtains behind you, arrange the chairs or cushions so everyone is comfortable and has a good view, where the audience is slightly layered with a few on the floor, then small chairs, then big chairs, then stools, then standing in an ideal world. There are always things you can do make the arena better and thus the show better.
In Halls where you put chairs are important. Often Children can sit on the floor but if chairs are there they probably would prefer it depending on the nature of the floor and the chairs but i find that if chairs are there i’ll use them. A semi circle of chairs with small gaps so the second row can be set so children can see through the gaps rather than straight at someones head and i certainly like the adults to come and sit, watch and get engaged in the shows too. The nice thing about getting everyone on chairs is you can put them where you want them and have the audience exactly where is best.
Never trust an audience to sit where is best for the show because they rarely do and sometimes very small changes can have a very large impact on the quality of the show.
In my early days i travelled a lot with a comic street show troop called the Cosmic Sausages where we literally travelled from town to town all over Europe performing our show on the street. There were so many lessons to be learnt from doing that and how to start performing a show with no one in front of you to end up with a large audience perfectly shaped with people sitting at the front and then a hedge of people watching all around, it was a science all in itself. The lessons learnt from that can be applied to any show in any arena large or small, to any type of performance anywhere and by making small changes to all the variables you often get much better results.
Always think you can change the seating, the lighting, the backdrop, move the rug, add some cushions. Where you perform in the garden or park so there is a nice scene behind you or in a Hall too the same applies. Always try and set the arena and make it as good as possible for the show because sometimes very small things make all the difference.
